Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Google's Auto Awesome

I discovered a new service from Google, that ever intruding expanding behemoth with tentacles that reach into your very heart blog. If you have "Auto Awesome" clicked on, the following are some of the services Google will perform:

Action - Take a series of photos of someone moving
(dancing, running, jumping) and Auto Awesome will merge them together
into one action shot where you can see the full range of movements in a
single image, capturing the movement in one captivating still.

Pano - If you've taken a series of photos with
overlapping landscape views, Auto Awesome will stitch these photos
together into a panoramic image.

HDR - High Dynamic Range is the process of taking
multiple exposures of the same image. By merging these images together,
your photos will achieve a greater range of shadows and light. Uploading
three similar images at different exposures--low, medium, and high
exposure--will create an HDR image for you.

Motion - If you've taken a series of photos in
succession (at least 5), Auto Awesome will stitch these photos together
into a short animation.

What you see below is the animation Google has done to my formerly static photo of a cabin in the snow in Maine

I like it...and don't like it. I can click OFF auto awesome, I suppose...somewhere. But on the other hand, despite being a little intrusive and creepy, it is also helpful. I guess that sums up Google these days- the behemoth that lumbered into your house and started rooting through your bureau drawers, but matched all your orphan socks before it left.